The dwarf’s lodging on Tower hill comprised, besides the needful accommodation for himself and Mrs Quilp, a small sleeping-closet for that lady’s mother, who resided with the couple and waged perpetual war with Daniel; of whom, notwithstanding, she stood in no slight dread.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

These were, the age, decrepitude, and weakness of Mrs. Sliderskew; the great improbability of her having any accomplice or even acquaintance: taking into account her secluded habits, and her long residence in such a house as Gride’s; the strong reason there was to suppose that the robbery was not the result of a concerted plan: otherwise she would have watched an opportunity of carrying off a sum of money; the difficulty she would be placed in when she began to think on what she had done, and found herself encumbered with documents of whose nature she was utterly ignorant; and the comparative ease with which somebody, with a full knowledge of her position, obtaining access to her, and working on her fears, if necessary, might worm himself into her confidence and obtain, under one pretence or another, free possession of the deed.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

As soon as we had looked round this inviting spot, and every preliminary of privacy was duly settled, strip was the word: when the young gentlemen soon dispatched the undressing each his partner and reduced us to the naked confession of all those secrets of person which dress generally hides, and which the discovery of was, naturally speaking, not to our disadvantage.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) by John Cleland

O! know sweet love I always write of you, And you and love are still my argument; So all my best is dressing old words new, Spending again what is already spent: For as the sun is daily new and old, So is my love still telling what is told.
— from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Sometimes thinking to continue my resolution of sending by the carrier to be at Deal on Wednesday next, sometimes to send them by sea by a vessel on purpose, but am not yet come to a resolution, but am at a very great loss and trouble in mind what in the world to do herein.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

O know sweet love I always write of you, And you and love are still my argument: So all my best is dressing old words new, Spending again what is already spent:
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

Near unto this church, beside Clarke’s well lane, divers other wells, namely, Skinners well, Fags well, Tode well,
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

’Twere sweet to mark the setting day On Bourhope’s lonely top decay; And, as it faint and feeble died On the broad lake and mountain’s side, To say, “Thus pleasures fade away; Youth, talents, beauty, thus decay, And leave us dark, forlorn, and grey;” Then gaze on Dryhope’s ruined tower, And think on Yarrow’s faded Flower: And when that mountain-sound I heard, Which bids us be for storm prepared, The distant rustling of his wings, As up his force the tempest brings, ’Twere sweet, ere yet his terrors rave, To sit upon the wizard’s grave— That wizard-priest’s, whose bones are thrust From company of holy dust; On which no sunbeam ever shines— So superstition’s creed divines— Thence view the lake, with sullen roar, Heave her broad billows to the shore; And mark the wild swans mount the gale, Spread wide through mist their snowy sail, And ever stoop again, to lave Their bosoms on the surging wave: Then, when against the driving hail No longer might my plaid avail, Back to my lonely home retire, And light my lamp, and trim my fire; There ponder o’er some mystic lay, Till the wild tale had all its sway, And, in the bittern’s distant shriek, I heard unearthly voices speak, And thought the wizard-priest was come To claim again his ancient home!
— from Marmion: A Tale Of Flodden Field by Walter Scott

I. Probably there have never been before in the whole past of mankind so many people convinced of the dreadfulness of war, nor so large a proportion anxious to end war, to rearrange the world's affairs so that this huge hideousness of hardship, suffering, destruction, and killing that still continues in Europe may never again be repeated.
— from New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 April-September, 1915 by Various

He sat directly opposite where Nehal Singh stood in the shadow, and when he shifted his cards, as he often did in a restless, uneasy way, he gave the unseen watcher an opportunity to study every line of his set face.
— from The Native Born; or, the Rajah's People by I. A. R. (Ida Alexa Ross) Wylie

They now began to scan her more narrowly, but still could not determine of what nation she was.
— from Sunshine Bill by William Henry Giles Kingston

It was a place of books and statues and tapestry, and the dark oak was nobly smutched of Time.
— from The Right of Way — Complete by Gilbert Parker

Folks had been suddenly missed from their own doorways, of whom no subsequent traces could be found; visitors entering the city were lost sight of; Irish haymakers on their road to the agricultural districts of the lowlands had disappeared from their companions as if by magic, and suspicions of a dreadful nature were abroad.
— from Nancy Stair: A Novel by Elinor Macartney Lane

They were written in pencil, and either were copies or first draughts, or were never sent.
— from The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 1 by Rupert Hughes